Eleanor J. Bader is a journalist who reflects on everyday social issues. In her articles, she advocates a greater spread of movements for social change. The article “Homeless on Campus” talks about the difficulties that students find themselves without a place to live while studying in college. In most cases, going to college is a sign of adulthood, in which the student must work harder to feel independent. However, there are many cases where a college entrant is homeless and has difficulty. In the article “Homeless on Campus” Eleanor J. Bader exalts and describes a problem that often goes unnoticed. The author highlights the lack of support programs for students left homeless and without funds to find a new home while studying in college. The text is extremely convincing, as the author uses many rhetorical devices. Logos is expressed in providing the reader with digital information about the situation with homeless students, ethos is reflected in considering the opinions of specialists and representatives of helping the homeless. In addition, the pathos considers individual people who found themselves homeless, citing the real stories of students as an example.
The author uses a lot of digital information to strengthen the arguments in the article, which makes the text quite convincing and relevant. At this stage in the development of social life in the college, the problem of homelessness of some students is extremely acute for all people. At the same time, Eleanor J. Bader skillfully uses the techniques of logos to convince the reader of this. Thus, Eleanor J. Bader writes that the students in the article “are three of the 44 homeless students” (Bader 30). Such numbers in a sentence show the value of the issue raised. Three students are a small number of 44 people who have received help for many years. The author reveals the lack of support programs and state guardianship over students without housing. At the end of the same sentence, the author indicates that these are all people, “who have been awarded LeTendre grants since 1999” (Bader 30). This is a method of arguing and strengthening the opinion that the task is not clearly enough considered in the public apparatus. As a rule, the main tools of the logos are the numbers used by the author to reveal the essence and importance of the question.
When describing the life of homeless students, the author constantly refers to the opinion of representatives of support programs. Eleanor J. Bader quotes Jenn Hecker, “the organizing director of the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness” for authority on the topic. At the same time, the reader has more confidence in the article and the competence of the stories and information about students who find themselves in a difficult life situation. The statement and appeal that the author show are not limited to one representative of assistance programs. She shows the reader the opinion “a family service counselor at the Clinton Family Inn, a New York City transitional housing program” (Bader 31). Moreover, her quotes include statistics showing the horrendous state of the problem at this stage. Thus, the consul states that in one semester “there are four or five families where the head of household is in college” (Bader 30). Thus, Eleanor J. Bader tries to reach the reader about the severity of the problem with the help of more knowledgeable people. In addition, she appeals to the authority of the students themselves, who found themselves without a home.
Paphos is one of the main tools of persuasion in rhetoric and is characterized by an appeal to the emotions of the target audience. Paphos accesses the emotions and deep convictions of the audience in order to draw them to the subject. This element often makes the audience feel that they are personally interested in the information being presented and is often a catalyst that spurs them to action. Thus, Eleanor J. Bader tells the stories of students who needed help. She gives their real names and most fully describes the situations that instilled in the loss of the house. As a rule, people who find themselves in difficult situations cause ambiguous emotions in the audience, which helps the author to fully reveal the problem. Thus, the journalist speaks about Aesha, without embellishing the circumstances, noting that the student had shelter “until her child’s father became physically abusive” (Bader 29). Eleanor J. Bader combines two global societal problems: domestic violence and subsequent problems, including homelessness. Moreover, the author conveys the experiences of the students, saying that one of them “felt that she had no choice” (Bader 29). Thus, the journalist shows the despair of the girl, and evokes emotions in the reader.
In conclusion, it should be said that in his article, Eleanor J. Bader implements three methods of rhetoric, ethos, logos and pathos. Together, they allow any speaker to make their message more powerful and increase their chances of persuading the audience. Ethos is author-focused, logos is message-focused, and pathos is audience-focused. Thus, the journalist expresses the problems of the text most fully and conveys to people the emotions and experiences of the characters written.
Work Cited
Bader, Eleanor J. “Homeless on campus.” The Progressive Magazine, 2004. pp. 29-31.